Silver

Kidz Express

Oak Park River Forest

Documentary

Entry Description

Documentary about tutoring under privileged kids on the westside of Chicago.

Judge 1

Positives: Great zooms on your pictures. Not enough people do that anymore. It can really help keep your video moving. What a great topic to make a documentary on. Chicago's low income areas are of a growing concern and this doc sheds the right light on people doing positive things in the neighborhood.

Improvements: We have no idea who the person getting interviewed is until 2 minutes into the video. What he says doesnt carry any weight until I see him and know what he does. Add that first. I wish more of your photos were actual video. A lot of those pictures with zooms could have easily been replaced with establishing shot video. Unless, of course, it was way to dangerous to shoot anything there.

Judge 2

Positives: There was a lot of great b-roll shot and used throughout this documentary that shed the most light on what Kidz Express does and how they make an impact. It was wonderful to see the kids learning and looking excited to learn. The music was a nice undertone for the entire documentary that kept it moving along. It did not overpower the interview and was a strong addiction.

Improvements: Unfortunately, most of Doug's interview didn't have his words matched with his lips which became very distracting. The opening pictures weren't the highest quality and some were so zoomed in that I couldn't really tell what I was looking at. There should have been more wide shots used instead of a close ups. I would also suggest during the text segments to have the source or the name of the person quoted to pop up at the same time as the quote. This will just save time and help to not lose the audience's attention.

Judge 3

Positives: Opening statistics on education was a great way to start off and draw in the audience. B-roll was a good tool to add to the narrative. Good story topic that needs to be in the public eye.

Improvements: Your opening is 2 minutes long before we are introduced to Doug. Doug can be introduced / shown in the opening montage which runs a little long and needs to be broken up. Quotes seem to be overused a little. Showing quotes from your 1 interview on the topic is probably not the best idea. I would use more sources/powerful quotes like you did from Booker T. Washington.